


Boys In The Street

by shadow_prince



Series: Wolfstar Song Fics [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Adolescent Sexuality, Alternate Universe - No Voldemort, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bisexual Remus Lupin, Gay Sirius Black, M/M, Referenced Minor Character Death, Sexuality, Song Lyrics, Song fic, Vignette, fathers and sons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-09
Updated: 2019-03-09
Packaged: 2019-11-14 12:38:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18052652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadow_prince/pseuds/shadow_prince
Summary: Two boys, their fathers, and responses to their sexualities over the years."You're a part of this family, I made you myselfBut the way that you act isn't good for your healthMy son, stop kissing boys in the streetMy son, stop kissing boys in the street"





	Boys In The Street

**Author's Note:**

> Lyrics in italic and centred are from Boys In The Street by Greg Holden and can be listened to on Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/track/5nUjgFwreuQOnMRzA1lHk7?si=h9iZqg9CRGCN97wy9YpP5g

_When I was younger_  
_My daddy told me I would never_  
_Never amount to nothing special_  
_He'd come at me from every angle_  
_He'd say_  
_"You're the last thing I wanted, the last thing I need_  
_How am I gonna answer when my friends tell me_  
_My son was kissing boys in the street_  
_My son was kissing boys in the street"_

⁂

The summer after third year, Orion walks in on Sirius kissing the son of one of his colleagues. Small hands fisted awkwardly in dress robes, lips too wet, but slick and hot, and Sirius has butterflies from the very solid and not at all soft and feminine body pressing him against the wall of the previously silent and abandoned hallway.

Previously, because a very pointed clearly of a throat as the boy releasing Sirius and jumping back, his blue eyes wide and terrified at the imposing figure that Orion Black cuts where he blocks their exit.

“I’ll thank you to keep your hands off my son, and never speak of this again.”

The boy nods frantically, rushing past when the man steps to the side. Sirius pushes up off the wall he was leaning against, casually brushing the wrinkles from the front of his dress robes where tightly grasped hands have created creases imprinted on the fabric and the depths of Sirius’ mind.

He refuses to look up as his father approaches, staring resolutely as the leather shoes polished to a high shine approach, until they stand toe to toe.

“Sirius. What is this. Can you not behave for a single evening and have to find something to stir up attention?”

Hands fisted at his sides to keep them from shaking, he takes a deep breath. “S’not for attention,” he says quietly. He almost flinches in the answering silence.

Orion’s voice is low and deadly. “Could you _imagine_ if it had been your _mother_ who caught you back here? You better beg to _Merlin_ and anyone who will listen to you that it is only because you’re _bored_ and need _attention_ like a child rather than the young man you are. Honestly, Sirius, what am I going to say to Theodore if his son breathes a word of this to him? Don’t you _dare_ kiss a boy again.”

Sirius keeps his head down until Orion is gone before fleeing up the stairs to his room, closing the door behind him before falling to his knees, silently wracked with sobs and a finger pressed to his lips.

⁂

“What is this?” Lyall has a magazine clenched in his fist, shaking it for emphasis sending the scantily dressed man on the cover running to the side for something to hold. The words _Quidditch Men’s Monthly_ are visible between his fingers.

Remus’ eyes go wide, his face burning hot and he makes a dive to grab it from his father, but Lyall holds it out of his reach. “Give it back!”

“I asked, what _is this, Remus?”_

“You know what it is, _obviously!”_ Remus spits, furious embarrassment burning hot in his chest.

“But why is it of _men!”_

“BECAUSE I LIKE BOTH, OKAY?!” Putting his fists to his eyes and pressing hard to try and staunch the flow of angry tears, he continues to shout. “I LIKE BOTH, ARE YOU HAPPY NOW?! I LIKE GIRLS AND BOYS.”

“Remus, why do you have to do this? Why? Why!” Lyall throws his hands up in the air, pacing the floor in agitation, not unlike Remus does once a month alone in the shack. “Is your life not hard enough being a werewolf that you have to go- go creating problems now? I thought you were intelligent but obviously not, because you can’t have even remotely thought this through, or you would realise what a horrible idea this is you’ve gotten in your head.”

“What, because I get to _choose?”_

“Well, if you like both, why can’t you just _choose_ to like only girls?”

“That’s not how it works!”

“It could!”

“IT DOESN’T!”

Hope comes in from the garden and wraps and arm around Remus’ chest, pulling him back. “Come on, that’s quite enough, let’s go outside.”

“Hope-”

“I don’t want to hear it, Lyall. Go put that back where you found it, right this second.”

⁂

 

_Now that I'm older_  
_My daddy's heart's a little warmer_  
_But he still won't hold me like my brother_  
_And he still won't kiss me like my mother_  
_He said_  
_"You're a part of this family, I made you myself_  
_But the way that you act isn't good for your health_  
_My son, stop kissing boys in the street_  
_My son, stop kissing boys in the street"_

⁂

“Any lucky witches or wizards catch your eye this year, Re?” Hope asks one night as she takes dinner out of the oven and sets it in the centre of the table.

Lyall sighs in exasperation, setting his fork down and reaching for his glass of water. “Do we really need to discuss this at the dinner table?”

“What? Is your salad biphobic now as well?” Remus quips around his bite of spinach.

Hope snorts, but Lyall just closes his eyes and massages his temple, as if asking for patience.

“But, no. It’s still rather difficult to date as a werewolf, _regardless_ of sexuality.” He holds his father’s eyes as he says it before spearing another forkful of salad and viciously biting into it.

Not taking the bait, his father instead asks, “how have your transformations been?”

Thinking of a stag, a dog, and a rat, Remus smiles softly. “They were… better than usual this year. Not too many new scars to speak of, even.”

“That’s fantastic, love!” Hope exclaims. “Really, very fantastic news. I was worried puberty would make things worse. I don’t know, moody wolf like a moody boy,” she teases, scooping hot pasta onto his plate before leaning down to kiss the top of his head. “Will any of the boys be joining us this for a visit this summer?”

“Oh, actually I forgot to ask. James’ parents invited Sirius, Peter, and I to spend the last week before school starts at the country house. They said they’d take us to Diagon Alley for supplies even. Is it alright??”

“Is that appropriate? Given your…”

Hope slaps Lyall’s chest with the back of her hand to cut him off. “Of course, I don’t see why that would be a problem. I’ll send Euphemia a message to make sure she’s really alright with all four of you at once though. If you boys give that poor woman a hard time, I swear-”

Remus grins, “I don’t know what you’re talking about, mum. We’re _always_ well behaved!”

⁂

Sirius keeps his sexuality guarded closely to his chest. When James doesn’t shut up about Lily, and Peter is nervously asking whether they’re going to Hogsmeade that particular weekend as a group or if any of them have dates, he makes jokes and teases them and makes outlandish proclamations of being an eternal bachelor.

Remus catches him watching him several times, and he has an excuse ready on his lips - _are you feeling alright after the moon? Do you need help with that assignment? I’m hungry, I was about to ask if you want anything from the kitchens? Sorry, mate, must’ve zoned out with how boring Binns is_ \- but Remus never asks. Just stares back with those _knows too much, can see right through you_ gold eyes. (That’s the scientific name for Remus’ colour eyes.)

When he steps off the train after 5th year he’s careful to shake James’ hand and clap Remus on the shoulder, catching himself before he ruffles Peter’s hair like he normally would and turning it into an awkward pat on the back. He shoves his hands in his pockets, nails biting into his palms as he walks toward his parents with an air of mature indifference.

He pretends not to see his father pull his mother close and kiss her temple. Pretends not to notice him hugging Regulus when his younger brother comes running over in robes the silver and green of Slytherin. Bites down hard when his father shakes his hand, and pretends not to notice when his father subsequently wipes his palm on his robes as they turn to leave.

That summer his father just so happens to turn down the alleyway that Sirius has met up with a muggle boy from down the street in, and it’s like the worst deja vu he could have imagined, and vaguely in the back of his mind he wonders if his father has been tracking him, waiting for him to slip up.

“Sirius,” he says tiredly, as if he caught his son sneaking ice cream in the middle of the night rather than snogging a boy in the street. “We talked about this. I know that you’re an important part of this family, but if you can’t act in an appropriate way that is befitting the heir of this family, then you will not be a part of this family any longer.”

Sirius doesn’t come back from visiting James that summer.

⁂

_My daddy's dying_  
_And he's finally realized I'm not lying_  
_We sit in silence but we're smiling_  
_Because for once we are not fighting_  
_He said_  
_"There was no way of knowing 'cause all I was taught_  
_Is men only love women, but now I'm not sure_  
_My son, keep kissing boys in the street_  
_My son, keep kissing boys in the street_  
_When I'm gone, keep kissing boys in the street"_

⁂

Remus stands in the doorway, eyes strangely dry, as if he can’t quite bring himself to believe the truth of the situation so his body denies him even the decency of tears. His father kneels on the floor, head bowed over the unnaturally still and small, much too small, form of his mother.

Lyall looks up and sees him lingering, waving him over until Remus kneels down on the floor next to him. Still holding his wife’s hand, he wraps his other arm around his son, hugging him close but not saying anything.

The minutes stretch on, long and heavy as caramel toffee pulled too far until it sags unnaturally. “Keep kissing boys.”

Remus frowns, tearing his eyes from his mother to stare at his father’s profile in utter confusion. “What did you say?”

When his father looks at him, he’s taken aback by the swirling emotions he finds there, light green shot with red and watery with tears, laden heavily with sadness but also profound love. “Keep kissing boys. It shouldn’t have taken me this long to realise it, but. I understand. And I’m sorry it took so long. But this world needs all the love it can get, and you have _so much to give, Remus._ I have loved your mother so much, for so long, I couldn’t imagine ever loving someone else, or loving someone differently than I love her. But… reflecting on my life with her, I want that for you. I want you to know a love this strong, and I realised it doesn’t matter who that love is for.”

The tears that Remus hadn’t been able to find over the last several days stream down his face as he thinks about his parent’s love for each other, and their love for him.

Lyall tightens his arm around Remus, crushing him hard against his side until Remus buries his face in his dad’s shoulder like he did as a child. “Keep kissing boys, Remus.”

⁂

Sirius is sitting with Remus, reading the morning paper over coffee on the balcony of their flat on a fine summer morning, when a snowy owl bearing an official looking document lands on the railing next to him. Frowning, Sirius removes the roll of parchment and the owl takes off again without waiting, which leaves him even more confused.

“What is it?”

“Well I haven’t opened it yet, have I?”

Remus rolls his eyes and sips his tea. “Go on, then.”

Unrolling it curiously, Sirius’ eyes go wide, startled to see the very shaky, but unmistakable sight of his father’s curling script beneath the official seal of St. Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies. “It’s from my father,” he says, quickly scanning the letter. “He’s dying. He’s asked to see me.”

Remus’ eyebrows are raised in surprise, but otherwise his face is unreadable. “Do you want to?”

Chewing his lip nervously, Sirius rereads the letter two more times before looking up. “Will you go with me?”

“Of course.”

When they arrive Orion is asleep. Sirius can’t believe how much older his father looks, taking the opportunity to study the lines of his face, the white-grey of his long hair, the veins standing out in the back of his hands. Remus stands behind him, a steadying hand on his shoulder, a thumb stroking his neck comfortingly, grounding him.

At the first movement of his father, Sirius stiffens, and Remus squeezes him reassuringly. White-grey eyes, much lighter than his own, open, flicking appraisingly between Sirius and Remus. “Thank you for coming,” he says regally, with all his usual propriety but lacking it’s former strength. “I don’t believe we’ve met.”

“Remus Lupin, sir.”

“I’m very glad to meet you, Remus. Even if it is, perhaps, a hello and a goodbye, given my health.”

Sirius relaxes and he can hear the smile in his husband’s voice at his agreement. “I’ll go get some coffee and be back in a bit?” he asks Sirius, who simply nods his agreement, eyes still glued to his father.

“Does Mother know I’m here?”

“She does not. Regulus does though, and agreed to keep her away for the day.”

Both men are quiet, studying one another, until his father holds out his hand, squeezing with surprising strength when Sirius takes it.

“I really am glad to meet him. That’s why- I wanted to- hmph.”

Sirius squeezes back, surprised at the tears in his eyes. “It’s okay, dad.”

“I didn’t know,” he whispers.

“It’s okay, dad.”

They are still seated holding hands, both hastily dashing away tears, when Remus returns. “Take care of him, will you?” he asks Remus. “Merlin knows he needs a good strong hand to do it.”

Remus grins, looping an arm around Sirius’ waist and pulling him close. “Yes, sir. I will.”


End file.
